


My Home has a Heartbeat

by lunrdarling



Category: IASIP, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, it's always sunny
Genre: AU, Angst, F/M, Fluff, High School AU, and it might be out of character idk, and ya it's like REALLY an AU cuz there are a lot of changes, but i got the idea and couldn't keep myself from writing it, it's a high school AU, mention of rape, nobody actually gets raped in this chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 21:10:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12021069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunrdarling/pseuds/lunrdarling
Summary: A high school AU where Charlie and Dee don't want to go home to their shitty houses so they hang out together instead. Charlie has an emotional moment about a really tough home situation he's experiencing.





	My Home has a Heartbeat

**Author's Note:**

> Dee doesn't have her back brace. It might be out of character. I was afraid to post this, but s/o to birdwithteeth on Tumblr for convincing me to post it. 
> 
> Feedback, thoughts, comments, etc are always welcome.

It was the Friday before a three day weekend. It was cold outside, and the dark clouds in the sky gave signs of incoming rain. Despite the slightly unpleasant weather, neither of them had wanted to go home.

Dennis was being particularly douchey today and Dee was feeling particularly thin-skinned. The combination would undoubtedly end up with her feeling hurt by his terrible insults. She’d have to cover up the pain by throwing insults back at him, which was an exhausting practice in itself. It wasn’t easy pretending that the insults her brother doled out on a regular basis didn’t feel like he was stabbing knives in her chest. But she would do it, because if she showed her true feelings then his insults would just become more brutal.She'd cry about it later and tell herself that all his insults were right. 

As for Charlie, he knew his Uncle was visiting. Charlie hated when his Uncle was in town. He’d hated it ever since he was five years old. The secret visits to Charlie’s bedroom still hadn't stopped, and just seemed to get more frequent as he got older. In fact, it wasn't just nighttime visits to Charlie’s bedroom anymore. It was forcing Charlie into the hall closet. It was pinning Charlie down when he’d been drawing in the living room. It was anywhere at any time, as long as his mom wasn't around--and that was pretty often. 

The two of them walked on the dirt next to the old train tracks, their shoes crunching against the scattered gravel. They hadn't said much for the twenty minutes it took to get to the tracks, or the five or so minutes they'd been walking along beside them. Not much needed to be said for them to understand that neither one of them wanted to go home. They’d simply met each other at the usual spot under a tree behind the school after seventh period and headed off from there.

Charlie was the first one to break the silence. 

“You ever wonder if you could make it on your own?” Dee furrowed her brows at his question but didn't turn to look at him. He continued, “I mean… Those people in the movies just put some beans and stuff in a bandana and hop on a train.. They usually do pretty well for themselves… You ever think if you could make it like that?”

Dee just shrugged. 

Yeah, she did wonder. She’d wanted to run away many times. She'd tried to figure out a plan to make it work, but her insecurities and self-doubt always got in the way. Her abusive inner monologue always sounded an awful lot like Dennis, and it always kept her from following through. She chickened out every time.

“I don't think it would work out though, because I don't have a bandana..” Charlie sighed. 

Dee laughed at his logic, even though she knew he wasn't joking. 

“I don't think that's the reason why it wouldn't work out, Charlie,” She didn't berate him or tear him apart or tease him like someone at school might have. She didn’t call him stupid, because she didn’t think he was. He just thought a little differently than most people, but Dee was okay with that. 

He just shrugged. 

They reached a fork in the tracks and followed the ones that went right. 

“I do think about it..” Dee said after a few seconds, “I do think about running away,” She’d never actually admitted it out loud. Now that she had, she was filled with a mix of nerves and relief.

“Have you ever tried?” Charlie asked. 

“No..” Dee shook her head.

The fell into silence again, and didn’t talk until they reached an old, rusty train car. It was left in the middle of the tracks, abandoned and unattached to whatever train had originally brought it here. The door was shut, but there was a crowbar nearby that Charlie used to pry it open. The wheels of the door’s track still shrieked out a terrible noise as they moved. He opened it just enough for the two of them to squeeze their way inside. 

Charlie set the crowbar down on the metal floor of the train car and Dee used the little amount of light the open door let in to find the battery powered lantern. She switched it on and the old train car filled with the yellow glow of the artificial light. 

They sat down on the tattered blanket that was spread out on the floor. Charlie had stolen it from a thrift store just a week after they’d first successfully pried the empty car open. A few days later, the two of them lifted the lantern and a pillows from a Walmart. They’d made themselves a kind of home-away-from-home. 

Sometimes water leaked through the roof when it rained. Sometimes they’d forget to close the door when they left and they’d find a raccoon or a few rats inside, which Charlie would capture with the blanket and throw back out into the wild. In the summer, the heat was intense inside the car and had once caused Charlie to have a heat stroke. (Dee had stolen a portable, battery powered fan from her own living room a few days later.) It wasn’t luxurious in the least bit, but it was a place to call their own. It was a place where they could be together in peace, and that’s what mattered. 

“Want some?” Charlie offered out a plastic bag of what might have been m&ms at one point, but now just looked like a crushed bag of brown, with the occasional primary color. 

“No,” She shook her head, “I think I’ll pass on the bag of brown mush for now.”  
“More for me,” Charlie said as tipped the bag back and let some of the smashed bits fall into his mouth. Then, with the food still in his mouth, he yawned. Dee scrunched her nose in disgust and looked away until he closed his mouth. He hated when he talked or opened his mouth with food inside of it. No matter how many times she’d told him not to, he did it anyway. Not to spite her, she’d learned, but just out of habit. 

They sat in more comfortable silence. Dee pulled apart a leaf that had made it’s way into the train car at one point or another. Charlie took out a switchblade from the pocket of his oversized jacket and started sharpening the tip of a stick he’d found. Even without talking, they felt more relaxed just being around each other. Being in the presence of one another somehow made things feel a little easier to bare. 

“Hey Charlie?” 

He grunted in response. 

“Why did you avoid going home today?” Dee asked. 

They usually only talked about these subjects when the other decided to open up, unprompted by any questions from the other person. They knew a lot about the dark parts of each other’s lives, about the thoughts that they only felt comfortable sharing in the dimly light train car. But one usually never brought up the subject of the other’s.

Charlie didn’t say anything at first, and Dee thought she’d crossed a line. She was just about to apologize when he finally spoke. 

“My uncle is in town,” His voice was a little shaky, and he was working more intensely on shaving away the tip of the stick he was sharpening. He swallowed thickly. Dee reached into her backpack and offered him her half-filled plastic water bottle. It became obviously that his hands were shaking as he struggled with twisting the cap off and took a large gulp of the water. 

“I had a… rough morning with him before school,” He didn’t look at her as he shifted a bit on the blanket, not picking up the stick or the knife from where he’d sat them down, “I just--,” He stopped when his voice started sounded a bit more shaky than before, and continued once he thought he’d composed himself, “I didn’t want to see him again.” The eight hours away from him as school still hadn’t eased any of the pain in his rear end, or the nausea that had been welling in his stomach and creeping up his throat all day. 

Dee moved a bit closer to him on the blanket. She carefully placed her hand on his knee. At first, he jumped a little at the contact, but after a few seconds he felt a little more relaxed than he had before. 

“I don’t-,” He hesitated again, “I don’t know how much longer I can take it, Dee,” He picked up the water bottle again and took a few more sips from it. She noticed that his eyes had started to tear up. She’d never actually seen Charlie cry before, although she thought maybe she’d seen him get close, “It hurts,” He whispered, “And, and… It’s not that I’m not used to pain, you know? Like I’ve broken some bones and I’ve have cuts and bruises and all sorts of painful shit. I’m like, a master at being able to handle pain. Like Mac cried one time when he broke his ankle but I’ve never cried when I’ve gotten hurt before, Dee,” For a second there was a twinkle of pride in his eyes as he told her this, but it quickly faded away. 

“But this.. It’s a different kind of pain,” He wiped his sweaty palms against his jeans, smearing his palms and fingers with dirt, “It’s so different,” He whispered. 

Then, Dee watched an actual tear drop fall from the corner of his eye. It fell slowly, collecting grime off his face as it went and leaving a streak of clean skin through the dirt on his cheek. It reached his jawline and dropped down onto his lap. He didn’t bother to wipe the wetness away. 

“Oh, Charlie,” Dee said gently. She turned to face him, letting her legs stretch out on either side of him, and then reached out to him. She wrapped her arms around shoulders and pulled him against her. She wasn’t sure if she was surprised or not when Charlie wrapped his arms around her lower torso and leaned his head against her, burying his face into her neck.

She couldn’t see his face anymore, but she knew he was still crying. She could feel her neck getting wet, water dripping down her collarbones and down the front of her shirt. Occasionally he sniffled quietly. He didn’t want to cry openly in fear of her teasing him about it, even though they both knew that he was and that she would never. Instead, she just rubbed his back and rocked him gently back and forth. 

Neither of them said anything for a very long time. It started to rain and the sound of the raindrops falling onto the metal car filled the silence. Sometimes his body would shake or his shoulders would lurch and she’d just hug him a little tighter. She couldn’t help but wonder when the last time he’d had someone comfort him when he’d cried was, and if she’d asked he wouldn’t have been able to remember. 

It hurt his chest to cry, but it felt so good at the same time. The sound of the rain muffle his sounds. Dee’s hand felt warm as she rubbed his back and he felt safe with her arms around him. He felt like she could protect him from all the harm that might come his way, and that she would be willing to do it for him if she had the chance. He felt like he never had to worry about his uncle hurting him again, as long as Dee was there to hold him and let him cry. 

“You don’t have to go home tonight,” She said quietly, her voice barely audible over the sound of the rain, “Let’s stay here. Let’s sleep in the train car and… And you won’t have to see your uncle and I won’t have to see Dennis and.. And we can just… Be with each other,” She swallowed with the last sentence, not knowing if that was too bold.  
Charlie pulled away from where he’d been cuddled against her neck and looked her in the eye for the first time since they’d started talking about his uncle today. His eyes were scanning her face, trying to tell if she was serious. He knew that his mother probably wouldn’t notice if he was gone. His uncle would, but he wouldn’t know where to find Charlie if he bothered to go looking. Sometimes he’d considered staying in the train car overnight by himself when going home felt too unbearable, but it just felt too empty and lonely without Dee there with him. 

“Really?” He finally said.

“Yeah,” She told him, “Really.”

Suddenly he was hugging her tightly against him, tighter than he ever had before, and almost too tight for Dee to breathe. But it was the kind of hug that Dee could feel resonate all the way to her bones and it felt so good that she didn’t tell him to stop, even if her lungs were a bit constricted. Neither of them had ever felt more at home than they did right now, in each other’s arms.

He pulled away from the hug and his eyes met hers. They held the eye contact, and Dee felt her face turning red. It was like they were looking into each other’s souls. They both felt so comfortably vulnerable in that moment. Both their hearts fluttered in their chests. Charlie felt butterflies in his stomach.

Charlie hesitantly leaned forward until his lips were just barely touching Dee’s, and she took a shallow inhale through her nose. Both of their bodies felt tingly and a bit numb. She leaned forward to make the kiss more solid. With their eyes closed, the rain sounded muffled in their ears, and their heads felt like they were swimming. Charlie felt like he was high, and he hadn’t even smoked anything.

Dee pulled away first, and they were both breathing harder than they had been before. Neither one of them wanted to admit that this kiss had been their first, just in case the other was more experienced. 

“I won’t make you regret this, I swear” Charlie promised. He wasn’t sure if he was talking about them sleeping in the train car that night, or if he was talking about the kiss. 

“You could never,” Dee promised back, unsure of the same thing.


End file.
